Newscast
Media HOUSTON—According
to a recent report released by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
the richest eight per cent of the world's population earns half of the
world's total income, while the remaining 92 per cent of people are left
with the other half.

Last week, Oxfam released a report estimating
that the share of global wealth owned by the world's 85 wealthiest
people is roughly that owned by the poorest 3.5 billion. That leaves a
tiny fraction for the world’s poorest people. Indeed, the share of
global wealth controlled by the world’s poorest thirty per cent fell
from just 1.5 per cent in 1988 to one and a quarter (1.25) per cent in
2008.

Evidence suggests that where economic power is heavily concentrated
in the hands of a few, political power may also be entrenched in the
hands of elites with undue influence. This then creates structural
barriers to the promotion of greater equality; for example, through
regressive taxation or under-investment in public goods and
infrastructure such as education or public health systems and services.

The Report documents high rates of inequality in the non-income
dimensions of well-being – such as health, nutrition, and education –
despite improvements in national averages of progress in these areas. It
calls for increasing public expenditure on basic services, with the aim
of achieving universal provisioning, coupled with a particular emphasis
on the groups currently experiencing the greatest disadvantages.